In the year 2323
The rumored pearl remained to be unfound. The team of researchers and adventurers, still small by numbers, has become impatient. The bitter reality was, that even digging deeper caves had not resulted in any findings, that could have satisfied the high expectations for this rather expensive expedition. The much talked about “pearl” remained elusive. Could the information have been that wrong ? Could the maps have been false and were the stories just fiction from drunk sailors or bartenders in various harbors ? All that surfaced was a few tiny pearls, one gold mine, some dragon teeth, one ancient space ship, one mysterious book and a big mountain of non scientific data.
“Nothing.” Rhia noted in her journal and dismissed all the findings with a flick of her claws and a long, but still hopeful sigh. The most difficult part of their mission weren’t the physical dangers, neither the ones coming from the island, nor from her, mostly human, friends. It became clear, that it was the numbing silence on this island that had the biggest impact on her. Soon she identified the lack of birds as the most disturbing aspect. Some creatures openly questioned, if this was indeed the right island. And many went back to checking their maps again. After a heated debate, involving the Goblin Queen Elan herself, BlueX and of course Rhiannon, it became clear that they landed on the wrong island after all. The captain was tried in absence for reckless intoxication at the helm.
Meanwhile, an unexpected letter from Rhiannon’s fake daughter made her laugh for a brief moment of lightness. After all, the “daughter”, Rhia always used imaginary quotes around her, unapologetically demanded that “… all the gold you will find on that ….. island obviously belongs to me”. She too, like most of Rhia’s friends, preferred to stay in a far away city, one Rhiannon imagined as similar to Las Vegas, to ” … fill her void and hunger for drama” in endless “raids” [“The Ratashi protocols” vol.3, pg 11,12,15,17,88,120 and vol4, pg 1-110]
BlueX, on the other hand, didn’t mind the silence, because she focused on forging a highly sophisticated weapons system from the unique materials found in these caves. There, lava from deep below pushed towards the surface and provided the unearthly heat needed to turn the rare black earths into indestructible glass. Blue marveled in creating almost any shape from that. Once she learned how to control the process, she produced one of the finest blades on the grid. She named the weapon “Bellatrix”, after her home star in the Orion sign. Rhiannon of course noticed, that there is something going on with her old friend BlueX. She detected a subtle shift, but had difficulties to explain, what exactly had changed. It was remarkable in any case that Blue, for the first time in many years, changed her hairstyle, making her appearance almost indistinguishable from one of these humans, except of course for the purple skin color and the yellow greenish eyes. This was huge. But for Rhiannon this was only a symptom of an alarming development.
The lack of birds was the most bizarre trait of this island.
